If you’re a fan of horse racing, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Tote betting. Known for its potential to produce higher winnings, Tote betting is a popular choice amongst both amateur and seasoned punters alike.
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A type of Tote bet that can offer a more interesting way of betting is the Placepot bet. To get involved with this type of bet and increase your potential returns, keep reading to understand what a Placepot bet is, how it works and how to place your bet.
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What Is A Placepot Bet?
A Placepot bet is a popular type of pool bet where your stake goes into a pool made up of other punters betting on the same race meeting. A Placepot bet focuses on the first six races in a meeting where you bet on a horse to place, rather than win. Once these races have taken place and the winning selections are identified, the pool is split amongst those with a winning bet, with each person receiving a percentage based on their stake and how many winning lines they have.
How Placepot Betting Works
The Placepot bet requires you to select a horse to place in each of the first six races of any UK or Irish meeting, or for one of the selected international meetings. You can choose more than one selection for each race, with each selection known as a line. Adding multiple lines to your Placepot bet increases your chances of having a winning bet.
When placing a Placepot bet, you wager a stake per line. This means that the more lines you add, the higher your stake will be. To calculate how many lines you have, and therefore how much your stake is, your lines per race are multiplied. So, let’s say your Placepot bet looks a bit like this:
Race
Lines
1
2
2
1
3
3
4
2
5
1
6
2
To calculate your stake, we need to multiply each of the lines together:
2 x 1 x 3 x 2 x 1 x 2 = 24 lines
There is a minimum stake that you can place on each line of 12c. Using the example above, if you placed a 50c stake on each line you would have a total stake of €12 (24 lines x 50c).
Placing Your Bet
When attending a race meeting in the UK or Ireland, you are likely to find a Tote betting stand at the racecourse. Here, you can place any type of Tote bet, including a Placepot bet. Many top online betting sites also offer Placepot betting. When placing your Placepot with a betting site, they will pass on your stake to the pool.
How Places Are Determined
The places for each horse race can vary. Therefore, it’s essential to know the determined places for each race before betting to ensure you don’t go for too low an underdog hoping they’ll come fourth, for example, if fourth is not a place that will count.
As with a regular place bet, the places for each race are determined by the number of runners.
Number of runners
Places that will count
1 – 4 runners
1st place only
5 – 7 runners
1st and 2nd place
8 – 15 runners
1st, 2nd and 3rd place
16+ runners
1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place
Calculating Your Winnings
To have a winning Placepot bet, you must have a selected horse place in all six races. If you don’t have a placed horse in even one of the races, your Placepot bet is settled as a loss.
As we’ve mentioned, all punters with a winning bet receive a percentage of the overall pool depending on their stake amount and the number of winning lines they have.
To calculate how much you have won, you have to start with how many winning lines you have. This is done by multiplying your winning lines per race together. Continuing the above example, let’s say this is your outcome:
Race
Number of lines in bet
Number of winning lines
1
2
1
2
1
1
3
3
1
4
2
2
5
1
1
6
2
2
Total number of winning lines:
4
Once the market has been settled, Placepot winnings are published. This is shown as a winning amount per €1. So, if the winning amount is €800 to a €1 stake, this means that if your total wager for your winning lines is €1, you will receive a payout of €800.
In the example above, a stake of 50c was placed on each line. With 4 winning lines, this means a stake of €2 was wagered on winning bets. With a Placepot winning of €800 to a €1 stake, the total winnings you’d receive for this Placepot bet is €1,600 (800 x 2) – not bad for an initial spend of €12.
Tips For Placepot Betting
Consider the underdog:
With Placepot betting, it can pay off to bet against the favourites. As you are betting to place, not betting to win, you have more chance of having a winning bet with an underdog and this can earn you a bigger cut of the pool.
Remember, with a Placepot bet, the pool is split between all people with a winning bet. So, unlike a regular fixed odds bet, you don’t know how much you would receive with a winning bet until after the market is settled.
More people will select the favourite to place. So, they will receive a smaller cut of the pool as there are more people to share the winnings with. However, betting on an underdog puts you in the chance for a larger win because there will be fewer people to share the pool with.
Of course, you don’t just want to bet on an underdog for the sake of it. You need to believe they have a chance of placing within that race.
Place multiple lines when betting on competitive races:
When betting on a competitive race where it is difficult to find a runner that you can be certain will place, it can be worthwhile to bet multiple lines on that leg. This way, you are putting yourself in a better position to have a winning line for that race, keeping your bet active. Remember, if you don’t have a placed horse for even a single leg, your whole Placepot bet falls through. So, giving yourself this safety net can be very beneficial.
It is important to remember, however, that your stake is per line. So, you don’t want to rack up too many lines and make your total stake too high. Therefore, it’s a good idea to reserve multiple lines for more competitive races.
Make use of banker legs
Banker legs can be another type of safety net to keep your bet active. For many, keeping the stake low is their top priority, and this strategy can help you do that.
A banker leg means that for one of the six legs you bet on the favourite to place. This way, you have an almost certain chance of having a placed horse for that leg while only using one line. Of course, betting on a favourite isn’t always the best strategy for pool bets, but in this case, it can be used to keep your Placepot bet going so that you are still in for a chance to win.
Quadpots
If your bet loses within the first two legs, consider buying back into the Quadpot with your bets for the remaining four races. This means that you can still receive a return should the rest of your selections place, rather than losing everything.
